Jim Irsay, the attention-whore owner of the Colts who has taken to Twitter like my 5-month old has taken to his jump-a-roo, dropped a BOMBSHELL this morning: Indianapolis signed veteran QB Kerry Collins.

First thought of every football fan on the planet: SO PEYTON MANNING MIGHT NOT PLAY IN WEEK 1?

Manning, as everyone is aware, had neck surgery in May – his second such procedure in 15 months. He hasn’t played a down this preseason, and some have speculated that his consecutive games streak of 208 (in the regular season) – which is the 2nd longest in NFL history – could be in jeopardy. Manning’s played through pain before, and he hasn’t had to go through any rigorous offseason workouts, but hey, maybe he won’t play in week one!

The Colts have never had a capable backup QB (the Jets still thank Curtis Painter for his awesome showing near the end of the 2009 regular season), and pulling Kerry Collins out of retirement is the sort of transaction that will turn heads and have every ESPN talking head foaming at the mouth for the next couple weeks. The Colts are familiar with Collins, obviously – he played in the AFC South the last five seasons and team president Bill Polian was the GM of the Panthers when they drafted Collins 5th overall in 1996.

I’m going to sit back and watch ESPN chew up hours of air-time on whether or not Manning will start in the opener against Houston in 18 days. Yes, I can totally see an AFC contender like the Colts thrusting a 38-year-old QB into the starting lineup for a team he’s been a part of for less than three weeks.

There are conflicting reports out of Vegas about the line for the game. The game is off-the-board in some places; others have the Texans -3. I think Vegas has better news than the reporters covering this story, so Sin City will be my gauge for the next two weeks.